Ineffable
by vanerz
Summary: Fudou and Tsunami go to the aquarium. Cover image by my friend Ro (shintetsukado @ Tumblr).
1. Part 1

**Notes:** Totally inspired by my friend Ro (shintetsukado on Tumblr)'s FuTsu aquarium musings and my other friend zazpi's Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan snaps. Also, due to formatting restrictions I couldn't include an image in the FFN mirror of this fic. You should probably go to the Archive Of Our Own mirror of this fic for the full experience (I am also vanerz on AO3). I really mean it.

* * *

 **Ineffable**

 **Part 1**

* * *

Fudou didn't know why he had agreed to go to the aquarium with Tsunami Jousuke.

But well, to be fair, if you'd asked right after Inazuma Japan whether he'd still be hanging out with Tsunami Jousuke now, he'd have laughed at you.

But things change. Circumstances change. Fudou was no stranger to that.

Tsunami had moved to Tokyo for high school a year ago. Fudou had immediately taken him up on his text asking to hang out. Having moved from Ehime the year prior, he knew better than the native Tokyo-ites what moving to the big city was really like.

For the first few months, they all met up every week or so, playing a bit of ball before breaking up for food. But gradually their scrimmages became shorter and smaller. The end of middle school loomed, and Kidou and the other Raimon players started focusing on impressing prospective high schools. And for Sakuma and Genda, Teikoku's legacy became less a source of pride and more a curse. The Teikoku high school advancement exam was no joke, and as the weeks passed they spent more and more time within the walls of cram school. Eventually, getting the whole gang together became something for special occasions. Their weekly meetings became just the two of them.

Fudou didn't think he was particularly good company, but Tsunami kept showing up, always happy to regale Fudou with whatever shenanigans he had got up to in high school the week before. Fudou didn't really mind the change either. Practice with one person was different, but it was also just as useful as practice with a whole group. And more practice would only help him. He, too, had a scholarship to retain.

The rest of the school year passed. Everyone in Fudou's year graduated and scattered off to their respective high schools. Sakuma, Genda, and, surprisingly (or maybe not), Kidou enrolled into Teikoku's high school division.

Fudou also retained his scholarship and joined them. But restructuring meant that his scholarship no longer covered his living costs. He could no longer afford the luxury of Teikoku's dorms. They gave him a grace period of a month to move out.

His Teikoku friends caught wind of it, of course. Fudou's suspicions were triggered when Sakuma asked him one day how he was doing. They were outright confirmed when Kidou nonchalantly offered him a spare room free of charge. When Kidou wanted something, he went hard, but of course Fudou had already known that for years.

It was too much. Fudou didn't speak to all three of them for a week.

Tsunami was the one who eventually found him a place. It was two streets behind his own, a bit too close to the marsh for comfort and priced accordingly. In other words: perfect. Fudou moved in the next day.

The flat was a shithole, of course. As the weeks passed, Fudou found himself grabbing any excuse he could to prolong the time he spent outside of home. He'd stay for extra practice. And after that, he'd occasionally hang out with Sakuma and the others. But while they were nice enough, sometimes he needed a break. Tsunami was always up for a good time and didn't ask too many questions, so Fudou found himself looking forward to Saturdays more and more.

And then he pulled his hamstring.

That Saturday, Fudou had breakfast and hobbled around his room to find some presentable clothes he could throw on. By reflex, he scooped up his football, then scoffed. As if he'd get any of that done today.

When he got to the field, Tsunami (waving way too enthusiastically, as always) was already there.

"I got your text," he said once Fudou was within earshot. "Sucks about your leg. You okay?"

"Yeah," Fudou answered. "Doctor says I gotta rest for a week." (She had actually said two.)

Tsunami cracked a crooked smile, clearly not fooled. But he didn't mention it. Instead, he said, "I know the perfect thing to get your mind off it."

So did Fudou. At least, he knew what Tsunami's idea of the perfect thing would be. "The fish again?" he scoffed.

"Hey," Tsunami said. "You're only saying that because you've never been to the aquarium. You won't regret it. I promise."

The side of Fudou's mouth curled up despite himself. How many times had Tsunami said that?

But then again, it wasn't like they had many other options right now.

He matched Tsunami's grin with his own.

"You got me," he said. "Well, what are we waiting for, then? Aren't you lucky I got hurt?"


	2. Part 2

**Ineffable**

 **Part 2**

* * *

Tsunami bought him his aquarium ticket. After some deliberation, Fudou accepted that, because he wouldn't be coming to this crappy place if it weren't for him anyway.

The receptionist girl directed them to the entrance, where they were immediately accosted by a giant fluffy fish with bulging eyes, that appeared to be standing on its tail to boot. It was taller than the both of them and entirely too much for Fudou to take, but Tsunami only chuckled. "Isn't he cute?" he said, thumping Fudou on the shoulder. "That's Sabamaru. He's the aquarium mascot."

Fudou felt like he had gained a new understanding on why Tsunami was so weird. Were all people from the southern islands such fish lovers, or was it just Tsunami? Anyway, he couldn't really find the appropriate words to say, so he brushed past him.

"Let's just go in already."

"Wait. Wait wait wait wait wait." Tsunami's hand on his shoulder tightened, and Fudou jerked back. "We need to get the stamp!"

Fudou followed his gaze. There, in Sabamaru's flappy, yet strangely functional hands were small slips of paper marked with squares. A rubber stamp on a string hung loosely around his other fin.

Tsunami strolled up to Sabamaru and received his slip of paper and his first stamp with a grin and a jaunty nod.

Sabamaru turned to the next person in his sight, that is, Fudou, and beckoned.

Fudou groaned.

"Are you fucking serious?"

* * *

There were ten squares, one for Sabamaru and one each for the aquarium's nine exhibits. They started with the first on the list, the freshwater exhibit. It was hot and humid and just about as far as possible from what Fudou had expected from an aquarium without actually being completely made of land.

"The frogs here are cute," Tsunami said, pointing. "Look, they're so tiny! Careful, they might be the really poisonous ones from the Amazon though."

Fudou doubted that (although they _were_ cute), but, more importantly, was that a picture of a _capybara_?

They approached the exhibit and were rewarded with a closeup view of the snuffling creature. It stared out at the aquarium visitors, unimpressed. Squatting next to it was a hapless aquarium worker trying to shove lettuce leaves into its mouth.

Fudou scoffed and turned to Tsunami.

"There are fish in this aquarium, right? Because all we've seen so far are frogs and salamanders and… this thing."

Tsunami gave him yet another grin. (Fudou was long used to that. It was Tsunami's default self, after all.)

"But aren't they cute though? You gotta be more open-minded, Fudou. The sea is a vast place, y'know."

"Actually, this is the freshwater exhibit, but if I wanted to see frogs and lizards I could've just gone into the drains behind my apartment. You know."

"Anyway!" Tsunami cleared his throat and dragged Fudou forward. (He got his next stamp while he was at it. Fudou followed suit, because why the hell not, right?) When they entered the next area, Tsunami flung out a hand in a grand gesture.

"We're here! You see these fish back at home. This is my favourite exhibit!"

Fudou took in the bright light, sand, and the tropical prints. Two parts of him were grudgingly impressed and one, very tiny part of him was jealous. Whether this was an accurate representation of Okinawa or not, it looked like a pretty relaxing place to grow up. Nothing like the cold, concrete, rocky beaches he'd had in Ehime.

Again, he felt like he understood how Tsunami had turned out the way he had just a little bit better.

* * *

There actually were fish in this section, a fact that Fudou didn't waste any time pointing out.

He approached one of the tanks, staring down at its depths. It went down quite a bit further than he'd expected. The only times Fudou had really seen live fish had been in Chinese restaurants and in Kidou's mansion, and the tanks housing those fish had been manageably sized. Nothing deeper than a metre or two.

By Fudou's estimate, these had to be at least four or five metres deep. Still quite shallow, to be honest. Nothing to worry about. And even the deep parts, the areas that extended beyond the floor he was standing on, weren't as deep as he had been. Fish swam in and out of the little grottos, playing hide-and-seek between the branches of coral and strands of seaweed. And there were crabs and starfish, and sharks or huge eels (he had no idea what these long fish-looking things actually were, they were just very flat and still) lazing at the bottom. The water was clear, not dark and turbulent.

He tapped the glass, only lightly so as not to attract attention. It was reinforced and very thick.

But, then again, the metal of the submarine had probably been thicker…

A gentle hand on his shoulder jolted him out from his thoughts. It was Tsunami, but without his usual larger-than-life presence. He put a finger to his smiling lips and pointed towards their left.

A boy who couldn't be older than five stood pressed against the glass. A school of fish passed by at that moment, little silver streaks making lines in the water, and the boy's head turned to follow them, a toothy grin sprouting on his face.

Below the boy, a stingray glided across, fins spread out like it was flying. Awe dawned on the child's face as he noticed it, and he reached for the ray as it swam across the glass, its gills and mouth twitching and rippling as if in laughter. The boy started to run after it, and the ray doubled back. It followed the boy's eager hands, laughing all the while, until the boy's parents came hurrying to shush the boy and pull him away.


	3. Part 3

**Ineffable**

 **Part 3**

* * *

The section after that was dedicated to crustaceans, and the one after that was all about jellyfish. They were okay. Fudou had never really been one for crabs and shellfish, whether live or cooked, and many of the jellyfish bore too much of a resemblance to cup noodles for comfort. But the crabs also had sharp pincers and pretty designs on their shells, and the jellyfish were like floating, bright Christmas ornaments. They were both okay.

His mood lightened up when they entered the next section and got their next stamp. (Of course, Fudou had been faithfully collecting all the available stamps up to this point. He didn't want to give Tsunami any excuse to drag him back here.)

"Look," Tsunami said, pointing at a small tank housing a swirling pink anemone and small orange fish darting in and out of it. "That's a clownfish anemone. You watched _Finding Nemo_ , right? The clownfish are cute as hell, but the anemone's poisonous, so I tell the kids back home to be really careful about stepping on them. Sea urchins too."

Fudou snorted. He actually hadn't seen that movie, though he knew the gist of it (come on, you had to be living under a rock not to). The year it came out in cinemas had been a bad time for his family.

Then he smirked. "What, you mean that freaky thing?" he said, gesturing at the pink swaying mass of tentacles. "Looks like your hair. Don't know how the fish can stand to live in it."

Tsunami bristled. "C'mon, that's rude!"

But he quickly settled down and gave Fudou a much more detailed explanation than he had wanted or been expecting. Tsunami talked with such passion that even though a lot of what he said went in through one ear and out of the other, Fudou couldn't help but be impressed.

And when they entered the next section to the raucous din of squabbling penguins, one of which sported an impressive streaked crest, Fudou didn't even need to look at Tsunami to predict what he was going to say.

* * *

"Now that fish," Fudou said a few sections later, pointing at a fish with huge, bulbous eyes, "that's Goggles right there. And that one's Sakuma. The classic 'Oh shit, I forgot to do my essay' look."

Tsunami's grin stretched even wider. "That one over there looks like a guy from my old middle school. Or maybe he looked like this fish… we kinda never mentioned it around him to be honest. And that one's Tobitaka. This one's Hijikata for sure!"

Fudou examined the lionfish critically. Tucked in a corner, it was prickly and thin, looking neither overwhelming nor friendly. But then it moved towards the centre of the tank and sprung open, stretching its fins and spines apart to reveal brightly coloured stripes. It settled into a do-or-die pose, and Fudou chuckled. Yeah. Yeah, he could see it.

"That's a good one, I'll give you that," he said, moving on. "Wonder who else we'll see..."

He trailed off as they entered the next room.

The tank in this room was huge. No, it wasn't just huge. It was the whole room.

It stretched all the way to the ceiling, and along it, encircling them like a cocoon. The water was startlingly clear, allowing Fudou to see just how far in and how high up the tank extended. And it wasn't like the ones in most of the previous rooms, where he had been looking down at the fish. In this room, Fudou was on their level. And what a different view it was.

A shoal of fish appeared, swarming to the edge of the glass. A brief smile flit across Fudou's face: if he wanted to, he could reach out and almost touch the fish making up the shoal. He could admire the uniqueness of each little fish in the group. But one step back would also be all it'd take for the shoal to become nothing more than a faceless mass.

The fish moved past with seeming purpose, swelling and compressing into geometric forms he'd previously only seen in maths class. Soon, the shoal flowed around a rock, disappearing into the depths of the tank.

But something else had already caught Fudou's attention. A snout poked out from a corner, and a seal followed, its belly rolling. Fudou had seen these things on TV and knew how quickly they could torpedo through the water if they had a mind to. But then again, in this tank, with their every need catered to, who would ever need to run?

(Well, swim.)

Well within lunging distance of the seal sat a couple of bigger fish, suspended in mid-water. They looked like they were either stoned out of their minds or having the time of their lives (hell, why not both?). Below them, sheltering under a patch of overgrown coral, was a pair of nurse sharks, and swimming past those was another shoal of fish, yellow and green this time. And lurking behind that swirling shoal (waiting to strike, maybe?) was a huge, camouflage-patterned fish. Seriously, the thing had to be bigger than his torso. And if Fudou had to describe everything he looked at, he'd run out of breath before running out of things to see. Everywhere he turned, there was something new.

And each of these creatures was going about their own business, only minimally disturbed by the others around them, and completely immune to the observers outside. There was nothing Fudou could do to them (unless he really went for the kind of dick move that would probably get him kicked out or arrested). He could only watch.

Watch, and imagine.

Fudou understood now how the boy from earlier must have felt. He felt like he was looking at, no, really _seeing everything_ properly for the first time.

* * *

As always, Tsunami had to hold in his gasp when they entered the tunnel room. The beauty of the ocean floor landscapes and the liveliness (or laziness, as it turned out for some) of the fish made him immediately want to change into his swim gear and dive into the water. It reminded him a lot of home. In fact, in some respects, it was even better. You certainly didn't get some of these fish and coral back in Okinawa.

He hoped Fudou was enjoying the aquarium too. Well, he was still here, so that was a good start, right? And Fudou had been collecting all the stamps, so he was at least that much into it, right?

He glanced at Fudou. He seemed occupied with absorbing the full extent of the tunnel room, which was pretty understandable. Tsunami walked on ahead, smile growing wider and wider as he saw more fish he recognised. If he squinted, he could almost pretend that he was snorkelling at home.

Then he spotted something and his smile turned into a full-fledged grin.

"Hey Fudou, this seal is cute. It's totally Kabeyama, right?"

A few seconds passed with no reply. After a few more, Tsunami peered back at Fudou.

To his surprise, the guy was still standing near the entrance, staring into the water as intently as a sailor dreaming of land. Apart from blinking every few seconds, he wasn't moving at all. A faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. His brow was relaxed, and his gaze soft and unfocused.

Everything else Tsunami had wanted to say immediately evaporated from his brain. Instead, he joined Fudou, taking a step back and looking up at the water too. Then, unable to resist, he snuck another glance at the guy who had spent the whole trip moaning and groaning. At that moment, it occurred to him that this was the calmest he had ever seen Fudou Akio.


	4. Part 4

**Ineffable**

 **Part 4**

* * *

They slipped through the gift shop pretty quickly. Tsunami himself preferred the real thing, and Fudou seemed allergic to anything that cost money.

Tsunami didn't hear from Fudou for a few weeks after that. Not a surprise, really, considering his injury. Even two weeks was an optimistic estimate for something like that. And then his school team went on a training camp to the mountains, and upon his return it was Teikoku's turn. The next time they met up again was a full six weeks after their trip to the aquarium, which was, as far as Tsunami was concerned, much too long.

After their one-on-one session, he dropped in a mention about his itch for the sea. But Fudou only smirked and said, "Well, you should go to the aquarium then."

The message was clear. Tsunami didn't press further. And that was the end of that.

Or, at least, that was what he thought.

One morning, a few months later, his doorbell rang. And rang. And kept ringing in short, sharp bursts, almost like the visitor was trying to punch his doorbell off.

Tsunami answered the door, bleary-eyed. In contrast, Fudou's eyes were sharp, the green of his irises so brassy it gave him chills. He was restless, fingers drumming on Tsunami's doorframe, looking everywhere but at him. And thank goodness for that. Fudou's gaze was so piercing that Tsunami really didn't think he could handle a direct hit.

After looking Fudou up and down, Tsunami wondered if he had forgotten something important. He was midway through a yawn and a wake-up stretch when Fudou spoke.

"Tsunami," he said, "let's go to the aquarium. Right now."

Fudou's tone of voice gave no room for negotiation. Not even for some time to have breakfast.

Tsunami turned back to look at his clock. Half an hour till the aquarium's opening time.

Yeah, this worked.

* * *

Tsunami stayed quiet the whole trip there (and even he knew it was uncharacteristic of him). There was just this massive Do Not Engage aura around Fudou, and he didn't want to see what would happen if he broke it.

When they got there, right on time for opening, Fudou made a beeline for the big tunnel room. In long, quick strides, he walked straight up to the glass, staring intently at the depths within. Then, slowly, his head angled up. Higher and higher it went, his gaze shifting gradually, until his neck was craned to its limit and he was absorbed in the contents of the ceiling. One of his hands touched the glass, palm flat against it, while the other lay slack at his side. The line of his shoulders relaxed.

And Tsunami was struck by a feeling he could only describe as absolute clarity.

They left after a few hours. Tsunami was sorely tempted to get the whale shark bun that was the aquarium's specialty, but even his fish-loving self couldn't justify 350 yen for a piece of bread, no matter how cute it was.

Just before they split up to go their separate ways, Fudou cleared his throat.

"Hey, Tsunami…" he said, then trailed off. Tsunami quirked his eyebrows.

Fudou's lips pressed together. His gaze was directed firmly at the ground. His Adam's apple bobbed.

"Thanks for coming with me," he finally got out.

Then he looked off to the side.

Tsunami couldn't stop the smile growing on his face. He was far too nice to force Fudou to look at him, but he did take the time to enjoy this side of Fudou he had never seen before for just a little bit longer.

It was actually kind of cute. When Tsunami realised he was thinking this, a metaphorical gale blew past him, and he sputtered.

"It's not a problem at all, dude. I had fun too."

After they split, Tsunami took the few extra steps to get back to his apartment, unable to get the expression on Fudou's face out of his mind.

Fudou and cute were two words he had never ever thought he'd use in the same sentence, but there you go. Life was as unpredictable as the sea sometimes. You had to roll with it, just like riding a wave.

But, even so.

It really wouldn't be too bad if he got to see this side of Fudou again.

 **The End**


End file.
